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Icahn withdraws $50B Apple stock buyback proposal

Billionaire Apple investor Carl Icahn has withdrawn his proposal for Apple to buy back an additional $50 billion of its own stock. The withdrawal is in reaction to a recommendation from proxy advisory firm ISS, which recommended investors vote against Icahn’s proposal, Reuters reports. Icahn wrote on his Shareholders’ Square Table website that he was disappointed in the ISS recommendation, but “we do not altogether disagree with their assessment and recommendation in light of recent actions taken by the company to aggressively repurchase shares in the market.” Seemingly in response to market pressures, Apple has repurchased $14 billion in shares in the past two weeks, and the company is on track to repurchase “at least $32 billion in shares” in this fiscal year. Apple CEO Tim Cook has mentioned that the company is balancing repurchase programs with a desire to maintain cash flexibility for large acquisitions, and is not ruling out the prospect of a $1 billion purchase under the right circumstances.